“Okay.” Her tone was full of resolution. She crossed her arms over her chest, seeming to sink in on herself.
“What’s wrong?”
“I guess I was just hoping for a quicker answer. This sounds like it might take a while.”
“Maybe not. I’ll look over the letters when I get home.”
“It’s late—and you probably didn’t get much sleep last night either. This can wait till tomorrow.”
Maybe it could. But he didn’t like seeing Maggie so hopeless. He’d get through those letters if it took all night. He hoped he could find the answers they needed. He didn’t want Maggie to have to wade through Ethan’s emails and stir up the loss just as she was starting to move on.
But that ship had probably already sailed.
Chapter 6
“Thank you for coming along,” Maggie said to Josh, whose promise to nap in the car had gone unkept. Zoey, on the other hand, was sound asleep in her car seat.
“Didn’t have any plans beyond watching the Braves game.”
“How was the sunrise cruise?”
“The kids were fun. The youth leader did a devotion after the sun rose, then I narrated the rest of the tour.”
“It was nice of you to do it on your day off.”
She wasn’t sure he’d gotten any sleep last night. He’d texted early this morning saying he’d found no clues about Rocky in Ethan’s emails. So they were headed back to Fayetteville. Maggie wasn’t looking forward to reading the letters again.
She turned into her neighborhood, an older subdivision containing modest brick ranches with small, well-kept yards.
“Do you want to read them here or take them back to Seabrook?”
“Might as well do it here.” If they both read, it would go twice as fast. She wouldn’t mind Josh reading the messages, though of course there was a fair share of flirtatious banter and innuendos. She’d leave that up to him.
A minute later they pulled into the paved drive. She and Ethan had bought the house prior to his deployment. She was well established at Fayetteville High School by then and able to afford the mortgage even without Ethan’s pay. The plan was for him to pursue a medical degree after he was discharged. From the Army to med school, Ethan seemed determined to follow in his father’s footsteps. He’d been raised with a great sense of patriotism. A strong sense of gratitude for this country’s freedoms. From the time she’d begun dating him, she’d known he planned to serve, but that hadn’t made it any easier to let him go.
When she shut off the ignition, Zoey stirred in the back seat.
“We’re home, sweetheart.”
Dazed, Zoey glanced out the window. “Can I visit Pokey?”
The next-door neighbor’s schnauzer was Zoey’s favorite plaything.
“If he’s outside.”
Inside the house Maggie went straight for the thermostat. “Let’s get some air going in here.”
“Uncle Josh, come see my room.”
He’d seen it a hundred times already but he followed Zoey anyway. “I’ll keep her company while you read.”
Maggie watched him go. He was such a good uncle. He doted on both of his nieces and his nephew. Probably at least in part because he was unable to have children himself. And that was a shame because Josh would’ve made such a wonderful dad.
An hour later, Maggie was sprawled on the sofa with a stack of emails. The threads continued for pages and pages. She’d initially tried skimming them for Rocky’s name, but she soon got caught up in Ethan’s words. She blinked back tears and made two discreet trips to the restroom to blow her nose. She’d found nothing helpful yet.
Josh entertained Zoey with a puppet show. Then they went outsidefor a while, making use of the swing set. Judging by the happy barking that followed, Pokey had come outside to chase Zoey around the yard. Now Zoey and Josh watchedFrozen IIon the Disney+ app.
Maggie read for what seemed like hours as Josh came and went with Zoey. Sometimes Maggie forgot she was even looking for clues. She got so caught up in Ethan’s world. But unlike the last time she’d read them, his words didn’t drag her deep into a vortex of suffering. Instead she smiled wistfully at his familiar phrases and tired jokes. She warmed at his declarations of love and blushed at his innuendos. She missed him so much and couldn’t keep her mind from straying into dangerous territory, because having him back again would be the kind of miracle she’d dreamed of.
